Despite the candid approach that Intel has had to its Apollo Lake platform, we are now starting to see fully developed platforms coming out to play from the major vendors. (I personally have some APL motherboards for desktops in for testing sometime during Q1 as well.) One of these platforms was GIGABYTE’s embedded BRIX line, more focused at commercial deployments than consumer, but interesting nonetheless.

The main unit we saw was this: the GB-EAPD-4200 BRIX. Using an Apollo Lake SoC, it looks to be in a passive case and sports three WiFi antenna. The chassis is 0.46L, with support for 2x DDR3L-1866 SO-DIMM memory modules, one M.2 (2280) SSD slot and a mini-PCIe slot for a 3G WLAN module. The WLAN accounts for one antenna, and the other two come via an Intel 802.11ac card inside, most likely the 8265 or 8260 depending on how GBT’s design cycle was in play. Using Apollo Lake means getting HD Graphics 505, although given this system it is more than adequate for video playback or casual office use.

This unit has plenty of IO to keep the buyer satisfied – dual gigabit network ports, dual HDMI 1.4 display ports, four USB 3.0 ports and support for a microSD card. VESA support for 75mm and 100mm brackets is included.\

This unit is to be sold as a barebones kit, requiring DRAM and storage, most likely for system integrators to add their own hardware solutions depending on how local customers will want them configured (small DRAM counts and low storage, or something more robust). Interested parties will need to contact their local distribution partners for more information.

VGA should always be an option on embedded products. Always.It is so cheap to implement and almost be default is on every chipset. The only reason I can see for why they didn't add it to this product, is that they didn't have room for the port.

Btw, anyone looking for a pfsense box should look up "qotom" (sold through amazon and Ali express) great 4 port x86 routers with intel nics. Arstechnica did a review on one for their DIY router piece.Reply